There will be a Japanese language only limited edition release of Duel Decks: Jace vs. Chandra, where Jace and Chandra are illustrated by Yoshino Himori, who does the Dengeki Maoh manga adaptation of The Purifying Fire.

I bought this particular Duel Deck in English when it came out. I’m not much for collecting and using cards in a language I don’t understand, but I may have to make an exception in this case.

Looking for Cirno x Suwako doujins in preparation for Fairy Ring, I found Kero-chan no Eroi Hon and 9-bai Cirno Jiru, both of which… violate the content publishing guidelines of H.C.Staff. Their plot progression is as follows:

Fairy Ring is a serious, all-ages Cirno x Suwako doujin, but it also inevitably involves a fight between the two. Suwako is a goddess who has come to Gensokyo because people in the outside world are losing faith in her, and along with her fellow goddess Kanako, plans to win the faith of humans by exterminating troublesome youkai. Cirno is a fairy who is a leader of a group of youkai who cause trouble for humans. Frogs are sacred to Suwako, and Cirno’s hobby is freezing frogs. For there to be actual romance between Cirno x Suwako requires some resolution of these differences.

Now, the term Systems Engineer doesn’t necessarily imply being in the field of computer science, but the whole moe CS thing doesn’t seem too far-fetched anymore. (I’m a Systems Analyst myself, and all my work involves computer programming.)

From Dengeki, publishers of Shana, Toradora, Railgun, and Okami-san, comes the story of Kouhei Sakurazaka (at least, that’s how I think the name 桜坂工兵 is read), a boy in his first year as a member of the Japanese workforce. Kouhei finds a job as a Systems Engineer, and gets trained under senior employee, Ritsuka Muromi (again, I’m not sure of the proper reading of 室見立華, it could be “Rikka” or “Tachibana” or something else, those are the same kanji in here).

Nareru! Systems Engineer’s female lead, Ritsuka(?) Muromi

Kouhei finds to his dismay that Ritsuka is a super workaholic who works him into the ground in ungentle fashion. Will Kouhei survive and become a full-fledged Systems Engineer?

I’m not even fluent in Japanese and I’m already recommending this book. Ixy is a fantastic artist, much better than I could hope to be, and this should be a welcome break for those who are tired of the abusive, tsundere loli Dengeki female leads.

I guess the algorithm confused me with CCY or something. I do admit, Shiori would make an excellent wife. She is the most attractive Kanon girl in terms of appearance and personality, and is also good at art and cooking. And I would rather hug a sad girl than a cobra.

As was the custom with Miao Diary, you’ll get preview pages every now and then just to show that I’m making progress on the next installment. This preview serves a further purpose in dispelling any illusions about the art quality. The inside of the book is not going to look as good as the cover, because I have to rush in order complete 5 pages in a week. The target time for pages is 1 hour, and while I will go over budget a lot, 3 hours is the most time a page will take; certainly not like the 7 hours I spent on the cover.

So here’s a preview page. This took a little under 3 hours to complete.

This is a Western comic, so read from left to right…

Yeah, the line quality is trash and everything could use some cleaning up, but if I take too long on this I won’t be able to finish before the end of summer.

As of now, Lotus Cobra is Evil is suspended until fall. All my art time this summer will be devoted to this new project.

The hallucinogenic mushroom Amanita muscaria is the quintessential toadstool, and can sometimes be found in naturally occurring circles known as fairy rings. According to myth, fairy rings are places where fairies gather and dance.

In the real world, you won’t really see fairies in a fairy ring, and the only time you will see a frog sitting on a toadstool is if it was put there. But there is a place where myth becomes reality, and that place is Gensokyo.

Unlike most of my projects, Fairy Ring is an exercise in developing speed as well as storytelling. My target is to take only one hour to complete each page. As such, expect the art quality to be somewhat sketchy. I’m not a good writer like Jason, Sam, or Muffin, but I hope to cover my weaknesses with massive infusions of cute.